A scoop of Croatia, a handful of Bosnia, and a pinch of Montenegro - a trip report

sessa:

so happy that you ventured forth to the former Yugoslavia...I, for one, fully understand the comments your friends and family made when you announced where you were going. Can you imagine back in the 70's and 80's, during and just after Tito-time? We got a lot of pinched eyebrows and blank stares each time we went.

The roads, all of them, were disastrous then,,,all two laners, ill-repair,but very little traffic, and potholes everywhere. Crossing the border from Austria was a nightmare each time, and once crossing from Trieste there was a three hour roadblock, paper-check situation.

As you've seen, all of that has changed dramatically. Please continue your report..I'm sure many of those Fodorites who are contemplating a trip will be reading closely.

(LOL on your Amazing Race remarks...wife and I chuckle about that non-possibility every time we go anywhere)

stu t.

sessa, I'm looking forward to the rest of your report. We leave for 16 days in Croatia on 4/20.
We'e been getting the same response from people when we tell them where we are going....first a questioning look and "where?" then "why."

Seesa, eagerly awaiting your report, we travel to Croatia in September. We too have gotten the "looks", Croatia? Why? Isn't it dangerous? Our research so far has us very excited for this trip-the countryside looks breathtaking, food looks yummy and I suspect we will find some great local goods to bring home for gifts. Looking forward also to your info on the ferries and thoughts on Korcula and Split. Shirley

Sessa - I am excited about your travels! Thanks for sharing - I look forward to lots more detail.

Did you find 10 days to be enough? You'll just have to return some day to visit Istria.

My husband and I, too, were questioned about our choice the first time we went as well. "Why Croatia?" And then you cannot possibly describe in words how fantastic it is - it is better than what one can verbalize.

We have not spent much time in Bosnia so I await to hear about that, too. We are going to spend three weeks in Bosnia and return to Croatia again on our next trip.

Great report so far - I too have discovered the beauty and charm of Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. I have been there twice and am returning for a third trip 4/11, so I am anxiously awaiting the rest of your report.

I am glad we aren't the only ones who received the comments and funny looks about our destination choice.

travel2live2 - We did find 10 days to be enough, but we also like to stay on the move when traveling. We were worried we were cramming in too much, but it worked out great. I would have liked to spend another night in Sarajevo, but the one night we spent there was totally worth it. I was bummed to have to miss Istria, but at least it gives us an excuse to go back and maybe combine with Slovenia!

Dubrovnik

After an uneventful flight (thank goodness!) and a really boring 5 ½ hour layover in London Gatwick, we finally arrived in Dubrovnik around 3pm on a Thursday. The weather was beautiful…much better than we had anticipated! We walked off the plane, breezed thru passport control, and Pero from Villa Ragusa was waiting for us as planned. The drive to the Old Town took less than 30 minutes, during which Pero engaged us in some very nice conversation about the history of Dubrovnik and also about America. This would be the first of many conversations we would have with locals about the poor state of the American economy and the election coverage.

We arrived at the Old Town and were in our room by 4pm. It was a quick walk from the Buza gate to the sobe - literally a left, a right, and then down some stairs. We had requested the top room since Rick Steves described it as having a great view, and boy did it! We could see over the rooftops and all the way out to the sea. The room was very spacious and comfortable, and we thought it was a great deal for 50 euro/night. The only drawback which started to wear on us, especially my husband, was the shower. Because the room was on top, it had a slanted ceiling and there was no way to stand up in the shower without hitting your head. My husband must have hit his head three times at least, but it was worth the pain for the view!

Pero gave us some maps, marked some good restaurants, and he was out as quickly as we had arrived. After showering up it was time to hit the town while the weather was nice. We walked up and down the Stradun and then looked for a place to have dinner. We decided upon Arsenal Wine Bar for its view of the Old Port, and Pero said they had pretty good food. I was glad I had read the thread on Croatian wines before we left so that I knew, or at least sort of knew, what to order – “two glasses of Plavac please.” It was great wine, probably my favorite on the whole trip. What I found interesting throughout this trip is that the restaurant menus just list the type of wine and not the winery. It made the decision easy, but you never really knew what you were drinking…except the times we ordered a bottle…and that was often! Time to order food….good thing the menu had English translation. I decided on the cuttlefish risotto, and husband had the shrimp skewers. I have to say the food was just okay. I was not as big a fan of the black risotto as I had hoped (I gave it another chance in Korcula), and husband’s dish was okay but he had to peel all 30 shrimp which was hilarious. Got some great gelato after dinner from a place on the Stradun and then hit the sack early. I have to mention that I was so excited to find an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 on the TV that evening with Croatian subtitles!

We slept great and woke up the next morning excited to see the sun shining again. What luck! The original forecast had rain predicted for every single day of our trip so we considered this great weather a blessing. Had a quick breakfast at Dubrava Bistro where there were tons of locals already enjoying the morning. After that we set off for the Pile Gate to start our walk around the walls. I think it was about 50 kuna each, and I personally think they should charge more because the views are worth it We headed counter-clockwise and took our time strolling and taking pictures…lots of amazing pictures. We were very excited to see Buza Bar from above as we had heard so much about it. We noted the location as we wanted to go there later that day.

The weather was so gorgeous that we sat out on the Old Port and read for a little while before deciding that it didn’t matter what time it was at home because it was 3:30pm in Croatia and that meant it was time to start happy hour! So we headed over to Buza Bar and were excited to find them open. We had worried that they might be closed in the off season, but there were already two small groups of people enjoying the view. We decided on our drink selection and then were told they were out of everything except one type of beer and one type of wine. No problem, an Ojusko and a Malvazija it is! The view was amazing…and it was still amazing 3 hours later as the sun was setting. I think the owner was there (at least he looked like the owner), and we were there so long they started bringing us drinks on the house. At one point I knocked over my wine trying to take a picture (okay, maybe I was slightly buzzed, too..he he), and the very nice waitress brought me a new one! We finally asked for our check, and they told us to please stay and have one more round on the house. Are you kidding me? We love Croatia, and it’s only our 2nd day!! We do finally get around to leaving because we are absolutely starving, and we give the waitress a giant tip for all of the free drinks. She looks stunned, and I could see that she asked the owner something so I sure hope we did not offend her.

Anyway, it’s time for dinner and what is better after lots of drinking than pizza? Mea Culpa it is! We ordered the “quattro formaggio” (4 cheese) pizza. It was giant, and we ate every bite. Time for bed because tomorrow we go to Montenegro for the day…

Welcome back Sessa! I too got those "why would you go to Croatia" looks, and still get them when I mention that I have been. Usually, though, it only takes my sending a link to our pictures for them to figure it out. It amazes me that people still think that its a scary, war-torn country. I took a class on women in conflict recently and we discussed the Bosnian War; everyone assumed that it would be a dark, gloomy place full of dilapited buildings. If only they knew....

I can't wait to read the rest!!

Tracy

Sessa,
This is a great trip report! I can't wait to read more. I am getting so excited to go to Croatia...we leave on April 28th, so it's just around the corner.

And yes, usually we get strange looks and are asked "why" whenever we tell someone where we're going on our honeymoon.

Loving this report! I'm counting the days until I will be sitting at the Buza Bar watching the sun set.

Barb, as usual I am envious that you are returning. We tried to get FF tickets to Croatia for next month but unfortunately both directions would come with an unwanted overnight in London. If I had more time this would be fine, but as I only have a week of vacation time I didn't want to spend two of those nights in London. So we are headed back to Germany instead. Are you still thinking about moving there?

Tracy

Sessa,
I know gasoline prices are high compared to US prices,but they are not yet equivalent $10.00 a gallon.

Prices for regular gas are running at about 8 Kuna/liter,which translates to about $6.65 per US gallon.

BTW there is a station down the coast from me in California on HWY 1 that is currently selling gasoline at $5.40 a gallon

Tracy, lots will depend on how this trip goes

lovejoy - You're right, it was $7/ gallon in Croatia (8.5 kuna per liter)..which is still more than double what we pay at home. It was in Bosnia where we paid $10/gallon b/c the place we stopped in a remote town just across the border was in Euro, and you can imagine with the exchange rate...

And, yikes, I will not complain about gas prices in GA with what you are paying in CA!

We spent $165 on gas which was equivalent to half the cost of our rental car. But, as the Visa commerical says, the memories are priceless!

Sessa...

LOVING your report. I was in Croatia 2 years ago and have strong desire to return...hmmmm...maybe in 2009!

I also stayed at Villa Ragusa and thought it was a great deal...Pero was a terrific host!

Great report! Can't wait for the next installment!

tcreath- did you give any thought to using the FF to get to Germany and then flying Euro airline to Dubrovnik or Split?

Sessa, I have been reading Croatia trip reports for several years here. It is what brought me to Fodors in the first place. And BARB, your name sounds familiar and I'm thinking maybe one of your earlier trip reports is what I first read on this site!!!

I want to go because my maternal great-grandparents were born in Karlovac. I believe I probably still have relatives there that I don't know about. I'd love to find them. Someone sent me the link to the Croatian phonebook and there appear to be dozens and dozens of people there with my great-grandparents surname.

I WILL get there one day, but probably not til the Euro-Dollar ratio gets better.

In the meantime, I will live vicarioiusly through your trip report! So, please keep it comin'!

Paula

I forgot to add that after dinner at Mea Culpa we decided to have a drink at Gil’s. We had passed by earlier in the day, and it looked like a cool place. It is a cool place and I loved the interior, but it is also a VERY expensive place. There were $8,000 bottles of wine on the menu! I ordered the cheapest glass of wine on the menu…which was not cheap and not good because it was like a white zinfandel (eww). There were a few large parties in there having dinner, and the meals looked like that commercial they’ve been running on TV where the couple goes out for a fancy dinner and the portions looks like space food. Anyway, the food could be wonderful, but it just didn’t seem like our kind of place…and we consider ourselves to be foodies.

Montenegro

We decided to do a day trip to Montenegro via rental car. We picked up the car at the H&M Rental office in downtown Dubrovnik. The first few minutes in the rental car were a bit stressful. We knew where we needed to go, but the road signs and especially our fellow drivers took some getting used to. After navigating our way to the upper road we were on our way. It was an overcast day so the views back on Dubrovnik were not as great as we had hoped. It didn’t take very long to get to the border, but once there it took almost an hour to get thru. There was a long line of cars, and for some reason it took forever for each car in front of us to get the okay to enter. But once we got to the front we were waved thru in less than 3 minutes after they checked our passports and the green card for the rental car.

We just followed the signs to Kotor and made our way around the winding roads along the bay. The scenery was just gorgeous, and we pulled over several times to take pictures. We arrived in Kotor and found a place to park. I was thankful we had brought Rick Steves’ book along because he gave tips of where to park. Traffic was crazy because it was a Saturday, and there was a market going on in front of the Old Town gates. With our car securely parked we stood admiring the walls above the city for some time and then went inside. Kotor is such a neat city and so ancient, and there was a lot going on that day in the Old Town. We just walked aimlessly thru the streets for a while and decided to find a place to eat lunch. We settled on La Pasteria (another Rick Steves’ suggestion) that is right across from St. Tryphon’s cathedral. We both ordered pasta dishes for lunch which were very good. Luckily, we had gotten some Euros in Dubrovnik because our credit card didn’t work at this place for some reason (no other problems on the trip).

After lunch we continued our drive down to Budva. The weather cleared as we approached the coast so we were once again pleasantly surprised with the weather. Somehow we missed the turnoff for the Old Town so we continued on to Sveti Stefan which was not much further. We decided not to turn around and try to get back to Budva because it was so congested and didn’t really seem all that appealing. Sveti Stefan is just a resort peninsula, and since it is closed in the off-season we could just admire it from above. The view was great, and it looks like it’s probably really cool to take a tour. So, satisfied with our trip to Montenegro we decided to head back to Dubrovnik. I was very glad that we knew about the ferry shortcut from Lepetani across the Bay of Kotor to Kamenari because that cut down on a lot of driving time. The ferry ride was about 4 Euro and took 6 minutes (yes, I was a nerd and timed it because the guidebook specified 4 minutes which I thought was funny).

In retrospect, while we enjoyed the Bay of Kotor I don’t think the extended drive to Budva and Sveti Stefan was really worth it. The Bay is beautiful, but Montenegro as a whole was not as exciting as I expected. Then again, I am not sure what I expected it to be like, but it was much more run down and congested that I thought. And had I read the intro to Montenegro more closely in our guidebook I would have been more prepared for that. I guess I had the impression in my head from the scene in James Bond Casino Royale. Now I know that movie wasn’t even filmed in Montenegro, but it set my expectations much higher. Altogether, though, I am so glad we went because the scenery was so unique and beautiful.

We returned to Dubrovnik and luckily found a place to park in the lot that Pero had shown us just outside the Buza Gate. The self-pay machine was extremely confusing, and there was no one around to ask so we interpreted it as best we could. And, unfortunately, the next morning we found out that we interpreted it wrong…we had a 100 kuna parking ticket waiting for us. Oops! We asked when we returned the car later that week how to pay the ticket. It was very easy and we settled it at a bank in the Old Town.

Anyway, with the car parked for the night we were free to go have our daily cocktail. This time we went to Poliskar. Its location on the Old Port is great, and we sat outside and enjoyed the view. It is beautiful how they light up the Old Town at night. We were too tired from the driving to think very hard about a dinner place so we went back to Mea Culpa and got a pizza to go. Clearly, Mea Culpa was a hit with my husband who is a pizza connoisseur. This time we ordered the pizza with ham, bacon, and gorgonzola. It was so good, but we didn’t finish it all this time. Oh, and we noticed when we got home that they didn’t cut the pizza at all so since we didn’t have any silverware back at our room we just dug in with our hands. It was pretty comical…and messy, but it’s amazing what you’ll do when you’re starving. Tonight’s English TV movie was “Love Actually” one of my favorite movies. We started watching that as we discussed our plans for getting to Korcula Island the next day…

Sessa...

I had the same feeling with Montenegro. I'm glad I went and thought the Bay of Kotor amazing. We did get to see Sveti Stefan and it was beautiful, but after a day in Montenegro I was happy to be back in Dubrovnik!

Great report, sessa! I am enjoying reliving parts of my trip to the Balkans and saving your comments for a return trip (someday soon, I hope) to see some of the places I missed before.

I loved Montenegro, and on the contrary found it much better than I was expecting. Of course we visited in November and it was virtually empty with absolutely no congestion to speak of so perhaps that made a difference. The towns, particularly Budva, were so empty it was almost creepy. We loved Kotor and Perast, although probably could have skipped Sveti Stephan and Budva. We came through Montenegro from Bosnia and had magnificent views of the Bay of Kotor from high above and I was speechless by the beauty of it all.

sarge, we did look into various options but the flight times didn't really fit into our itinerary so in the end we decided to postpone Croatia til another time. My paternal greatgrandparents are from Zagreb and came to the US right before my grandfather was born. They had to leave a son behind, so I know I probably still have family there, but there are discrepencies in the spelling of the last names in all the documentation we have so I couldn't find any real information.

Sessa, can't wait to read more!!

Tracy

I am so glad that so many of you are enjoying this trip report. I have to say it's a little intimidating as it's my first one on the Europe board and so many of you are so well traveled. But it's so fun to relive the trip and help others in planning theirs.

Tracy - Your trip report was one of the reasons we tacked on Montenegro. I am still glad we did because the scenery was fabulous and very different from the other places we visited on the trip. We almost ended up in the bay several times because my chauffer (aka husband) couldn't keep his eyes on the road with all of the beautiful scenery

LOL sessa...I'm kind of glad that we had a driver because he was completely nonchalant about the beauty and we were all gawking at everything. However, congestion is one thing that I don't handle very well (hence my reasoning for traveling off-season most of the time) and if we experienced a lot of congestion it could have very well changed my opinion on Montenegro, as part of it's beauty for me was it's complete stillness.

You are doing a great job...anxiously awaiting more!

Tracy

Korcula

We set out for Korcula around 10:30 after grabbing some pastries from Niko. I would return to this bakery many times because they had the most amazing chocolate croissants. You know how most places just put a little strip of chocolate in the middle and you can barely taste it? Well, Niko fills their croissants with rich, oozing chocolate that fills the entire croissant. Warning: only true chocolate lovers like me will enjoy this, but it is beyond amazing.

So we hit the coastal road with no problems and are off to Orebic on the Peljesac Peninsula where we plan to catch the car ferry over to Korcula. The drive was so pleasant and beautiful. Again, it was hard to keep my husband focused on the road when the Adriatic was right there to his left. As we approached the peninsula it looked like a storm was brewing, but it never did rain. What were those meteorologists smoking when they predicted rain for our entire trip?! It didn’t take very long to reach our turn off for Ston. We made a quick stop at Ston to snap some pictures of the “great wall” and then we made our way along the curvy roads through some picturesque wineries. Of course the vines were all bare so I could only imagine how pretty it is in summer. It took about 1 ½ hours to get to Orebic and we had just missed the 1pm ferry. The ferry runs every day almost hourly depending on the season. The next ferry was at 2:30 so we had some time to kill, and I needed to find a bathroom. Unfortunately, nothing in Orebic was open (that’ll teach me to drink a bottle of water in the car!) so we decided to grab a coffee at the little bar by the dock. Of course they had no bathroom (which had me questioning where the waitress goes), but we ordered drinks…a hot chocolate for me. This was my first hot chocolate in Croatia, and it was amazing…so rich and creamy. I am probably providing too many details here so I will try to speed it up…

It was about 60 kuna for the ferry and the ride took 15 minutes. Once we unloaded from the ferry we called Rezi at Villa Depolo for directions. She was so sweet and said she would come meet us along the road. She told my husband what she was wearing, and that she is in her 60’s so not to expect a “young thing.” Sure enough we spotted her and her husband right away and followed them to their place where we were able to park right in front. Rezi was so welcoming and spoke excellent English. She showed us to our room which was very spacious and a total score for only 240 kuna/night (33 Euro). It was the only one with a balcony (be sure to ask for this one) that overlooks the water and the Old Town. Rezi told us that it had been gloomy for days but had yet to rain so we were keeping our fingers crossed for some great weather the following day.

We immediately set out to explore the Old Town, and we were surprised to find EVERYTHING closed except for one wine store. It was so much fun to explore the town with absolutely no one in it, but we started to worry if we had made a mistake by coming there in the off-season. To drown our sorrows, we stopped by the wine store (surprise, surprise) and picked up a bottle of Plavac. We commented to the owner that it was a ghost town, and her response was “Of course, it’s Sunday.” We were relieved at her explanation. We went back to the sobe and sat outside on our balcony drinking in the views…and the wine! A little while later we set out to see if anything was open for dinner. We ended up at Panjak Restaurant outside the Old Town where I had a local spaghetti dish and my husband had some traditional veal dish that was served with some not-so-traditional french fries. Overall, it was pretty good and inexpensive.

Once again the weather gods were on our side because we woke up to the most beautiful morning. Each time we woke up in the morning we would be scared to look outside, but all we saw this morning was the water shimmering below our window and the sun shining on the Old Town. In the middle of the night a small cruise ship had docked into the harbor, and we could see the town was already much more alive than the previous day. We set out for some breakfast (orange juice and pastries…of course) and then after walking around the Old Town again decided that we should explore more of the island. So we picked up some picnic essentials at Konzum and started driving west because it looked like this route would take us along the water. It was another beautiful drive, and we ended up in the little town of Racisce which looked like a great picnic spot. We parked our car in the tiny harbor and found a bench where we could relax and enjoy our goodies. It was so quiet and peaceful…the perfect picnic spot. On the way back we took a different route (on accident) and found ourselves looking down on the Old Town from above. What a great view we stumbled upon! We ended the day with dinner at Hotel Korcula (again, one of the few places open this time of year). This is where I gave the black risotto a second chance and was again so disappointed that I didn’t like it.

We had to get to bed very early this evening because we were taking the 6:30am (yikes!) ferry from Vela Luka to Split. Rezi thought we were crazy for doing this, but it ended up working out great for us since there wasn’t enough to keep us occupied in Korcula for another day. The drive from Korcula Town to Vela Luka was very easy and took about 45 minutes. We allowed ourselves 1 ½ hours so arrived around 5:30am. It was starting to rain as we were waiting and that is when my husband realized he had left his jacket in Dubrovnik. Oops! At least we were returning there at the end of our trip so we knew it was not lost. We had bought some breakfast the night before and enjoyed that in the car while we waited. This ferry was much more expensive, but it is also a much longer journey. Luckily, they took credit cards for this one.

It was crazy to watch how they loaded the cars onto this ferry, as this one was much fuller than the one we had taken over from Orebic. There were some really large trucks on this one, and we were baffled as to why they loaded them on backwards. The cars were so packed in that we were sure we would be filing a police report in Split for damage to our rental car. We went upstairs to make ourselves comfortable for the journey up to Split.

All in all, we were very happy we went to Korcula. I can’t imagine what a zoo it must be in peak season. It was so nice to have the place to ourselves, but I would have liked to have been able to try some better restaurants.

Sessa, your experience with Korcula sounds very similar to our experience with Trogir. Because it was off-season the town was almost a ghost town and we ate at the only restaurant in town that was open...and were the only ones in there during the duration of our meal. I like traveling during off-season, but in some towns in Croatia off-season really is off-season as everything is closed. We never did make it to Hvar because we couldn't find a hotel that was open. Still, there is something kind of cool about traveling away from all the crowds...I couldn't imagine Dubrovnik or Trogir in the summer with all the crowds.

Tracy

I'm really enjoying your report, and am looking forward to your comments on Guest House Halvat, where I stayed during my tour of the Western Balkans in August 2006.

On that trip, I stayed at Sveti Stefan, which was very interesting, but the rooms and restaurant were a bit tired -- I understand the hotel has been purchased by one of the international five-star brands, and I'm sure they'll spend many millions on refurbishment.

Sessa...

I'm sad to hear your black risotto experiences weren't very good. I ordered it in a restaurant in Hvar (I can't remember the name right now) and it was one of my most memorable meals ever!

I mistakenly ordered it again at a place in Dubrovnik (can't remember the name of that place either) and it didn't hold a candle to the dish I had in Hvar. The friend I was traveling with told me not to order it in Dubrovnik and I should have listened to her!

Happily anticipating your next post!

LCI - I am hoping that I just ordered it at the wrong places because I had read how delicious it is, and it totally sounds like something I would enjoy. By the end of the trip, I was hesitant to give it another try. Maybe on our return trip...

Tracy - Like you, we love traveling in the off-season. We knew it would be quieter, but you're right that off-season in some of these places really does mean OFF-season. Dubrovnik actually had a lot more tourists than I expected, and we were pleased to see everything open. I don't think I would ever want to be there in the summer.

Split & Trogir

Unfortunately all of the booths and seating areas on the ferry were already full so we found a table in the bar, and I proceeded to pass out on my backpack while my husband read up on Split. Since I (happily) did all of the planning for the trip he pretty much had no idea where we were going until we were on our way there. That works well for us because I am a control freak when it comes to travel so I appreciate his laid back attitude and he appreciates me doing all of the leg work. Back to the ferry…it was so smoky in there. That was probably my biggest complaint about Croatia is that everyone smokes…much more so than I saw in Spain and Italy. Now I realize that smoking is a personal preference, but now that our city doesn’t allow smoking in most restaurants/ bars anymore I am really not used to it. I think I even had an allergic reaction to it because I couldn’t stop sneezing this entire trip. It was either the smoke or all of the cats (because cats are the only thing I am allergic to)…however, I was never in close proximity to a cat, thus, I conclude it was the smoke. Very scientific, I know.

Anyway, I digress…so I managed to sleep at the table for almost the entire trip, and when I woke up we were approaching the Split harbor around 9:30am. It was still raining, but we planned to check out Diocletian’s Palace and the Riva before heading out. Getting off the ferry was an adventure, and we soon realized why they back the large trucks on. It’s because they unload from the same side where they load (on the ferry from Orebic, you drive on one way and continue in the same direction getting off). So the trucks drive off and then all of the cars have to turn around on the ferry before they drive off. We found this to be hysterical as it is something you would never see in the US. Granted you could never do it here with all of the minivans and SUVs that people here drive around. It was amazing how efficient they were in directing all of the cars off in this manner.

We drive off the ferry, and my husband has studied the map and is sure he know how to get to Diocletian’s Palace since it’s right there near the harbor. Well, he goes the wrong way and we find ourselves lost….really lost for about an hour. Another reminder that we will not be making that audition tape for Amazing Race. We stop and ask a few people, and no one seems to know what Diocletian’s Palace is, let alone where, which we found very strange. We even asked ourselves if we somehow got off in the wrong city!

Long story short, we finally found the palace and parking, and by now the weather has cleared – woohoo! The palace was pretty cool and so interesting how it is now a little city filled with shops and such. After walking around the palace we took a little stroll down the Riva and stopped for a hot chocolate and coffee. Then it was back in the car to make a lunch stop in Trogir before setting out for Plitvice. Once again, we got slightly lost leaving Split, but the drive to Trogir was easy and took about 30 minutes.

I loved Trogir immediately. What a neat little place. We drove across the canal and found parking along the water. There was a sign that said parking was 10 kuna, but there was no indication where we were to pay this. So after some searching we decided that we were too hungry to figure it out and accepted the possibility that we might have another parking ticket in our future.

There were several people sitting outside on the harbor so we sat down at a place that said pizzeria and were quickly told they didn’t serve food. That’s odd, but we went right next door to Pizzeria Mirkec where we had another delicious pizza. I never eat pizza at home so all of this pizza in Croatia was, I guess, making up for lost time. After lunch we walked around the little town before deciding that we better hit the road so we could get to Plitvice before dark. That was our one “policy” on this trip is that we never wanted to be driving long distances in the dark. Oh, and no parking ticket – whew!

I know opinions about Split are mixed on this board, and we definitely fall into the category of those who didn’t care for it. I was glad we just made a quick stop here since it was too big and industrial-ish for our tastes. I was amazed at the size and congestion in a city that only has around 200,000 residents. I am sure had we not gotten lost for an hour we may have warmed to the city more, but we much preferred the quaintness and charm of Trogir.

Oh, and I mentioned previously that we made a phone call to our sobe in Korcula so wanted to explain. After much research on Fodor’s, we bought an unlocked cell phone on e-bay for less than $30. We then purchased a prepaid international SIM card (since we were traveling to 3 countries, 5 if you count the airport stops) from United Mobile. I think it was around $75 for the SIM card preloaded with $13 and we purchased an additional $30 of calling time. Phone calls were around 50 cents/minute to the US and within the countries we traveled to. We were able to activate the card and get our number before we left the US. This turned out to be an excellent investment and a much better deal than renting a phone as we were originally planning to do, and we can use the phone on future trips.

Hi sessa.

Love the report. We are going in June, and decided to make Trogir our base for two nights instead of Split (day trip there), so your comments were interesting.

Awaiting your next installment with much interest, because we are also driving from Trogir to Plitvice and have wondered how long that would take. Thanks again for a great report.

I am thoroughly enjoying your report, and don't worry about too many details, I think most of us are very interested in those interesting little tidbits. I had planned on staying on Korcula last Oct. and had reservations at your place, but because of ferry schedule difficulties, decided to just do a day trip with Atlas and I am kinda glad I did because I don't think there was enough there to keep me occupied for more than a day. If I had had a car maybe it would have been better. Don't get me wrong, the town is charming and picturesque, but a couple of hours and you've pretty much seen it. It was a nice day trip. Looking forward to your next installment.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

This is where the real adventure started…

Leaving Trogir and getting to the A1 highway was easy as we just followed the signs. The A1 was great. We pretty much had the road to ourselves, and it was nice to finally be able to drive fast. It started raining on the drive, and as we started our ascent up into the mountains the rain quickly turned to snow. SNOW?! I know the forecasters had been totally wrong about the weather so far, but there was nothing in the forecast about snow. Now my husband was really kicking himself for leaving his jacket in Dubrovnik. Once we got off the A1, the closer and closer we got to Plitvice, the heavier the snow was. It was so pretty, though. It must have been snowing for a few days because the ground was entirely covered, as were the trees. Luckily, they were routinely clearing the smaller roads so driving was not a problem. I think the total time from Trogir was about 3 hours (and the toll for the A1 was about 60 kuna I think – they took credit card).

We found Knezevic Guest House in the little town of Mukinje very easily. We had no idea where to park because everything was covered with like 2 feet of snow. We called Kristina (the daughter), and she came outside and directed us to park behind the house. It looked impossible to get back there, but with a little bit of shoveling and a little bit of pushing we managed to get the car parked. This is when we started asking ourselves – “Did we drive all this way for nothing?!” I mean this was going to be the highlight of the trip, especially for my husband. Kristina (who speaks English) informed us that the park was closed and that she didn’t think we were coming. Well, had we known it was snowing we probably wouldn’t have, but we are here so let’s hope for the best.

The guest house, by the way, is great. It looks brand new (Kristina said they have been operating for 4 years) and everything is spotless. It was 45 Euro per night and this included breakfast of bread, meats, and cheeses.

Kristina told us the only restaurant open was the one across from the house so we went over there for dinner and guess what they served? PIZZA of course! We were the only people in there. In fact, I think we were the only visitors in the whole town! We ordered the Plitvice pizza in honor of the park we were not going to see and a carafe of red wine. The pizza was ginormous – it literally took up the entire table. It was so good, though. By the time we were done (yes, we ate the whole thing), a few locals had come in to escape the cold and enjoy a few brews. My husband saw they were drinking a local beer (Karlovacko) he hadn’t tried yet so he ordered one while I polished off the 2nd carafe of wine.

We woke up around 7:30am the next morning because we wanted to get an early start if we were going to cut our visit short and get to Sarajevo. Well, wouldn’t you know it that the weather gods worked in our favor yet again. The sun was shining, and the snow on the roads had started to melt. Maybe we will get to see the park after all! We ate breakfast, layered up (Kristina felt certain the park would be open), grabbed the backpack and headed out. We had planned to start at the lower lakes and then do the upper, but as we drove past entrance #2 (upper) we noticed it was still closed. DARN! Well, maybe they only wanted to clear one entrance so we continued up the road to entrance #1. Hallelujah – it’s open!

Aside from a small group of asian tourists we were the only people in sight. We bought our tickets (70 kuna each in off-season), and the lady told us we should hike the lower lakes and then drive back to Hotel Jezero to park and do the upper lakes since the shuttle buses weren’t running. Normally, you could do the lower lakes and take a boat to the upper lakes and then a shuttle could bring you back to your car. No biggie, we are just ecstatic that we get to see it. Who cares if there is a foot of snow on the ground?!

So we start our hike, and right away the views of the big waterfall are magnificent. The path down was cleared pretty well (but by the end of the day our shoes and socks were soaked). It actually wasn’t that cold either since the sun was out (this is coming from two born and raised Floridians) so my husband was no longer kicking himself for forgetting his jacket.

I won’t go into too much detail about the hike because words literally cannot describe the beauty of it all. We felt so blessed to be there and to see this unique place…and to have it all to ourselves. This place must be teeming with visitors in the summer so to see it so peaceful and unspoiled was just mind-blowing. I think majestic is how I would describe it (I will post pictures so you can judge for yourself).

We spent about 2 hours doing the lower falls, hiking all over. The boat was running across the lake, but we decided to follow the lady’s advice so that we didn’t have to re-trace our steps. We took the car to Hotel Jezero where we had planned to have lunch before doing the rest of the falls. Instead, since the restaurant was pretty pricey for lunch, we just had some hot chocolate (yum!) and our snack bars and checked internet for the 1st time on the trip.

The lady at the information desk had told us that we could take the boat from Hotel Jezero over to the lower falls. Well, we were very disappointed to learn that this boat was not, in fact, running. We weren’t going to let this stop us so we walked the shuttle bus route completely around the lake to get to the upper falls. This must have been about 3 miles, but we had all day to kill so why not? We were so happy when we finally saw the path down to the upper falls. These paths were not cleared and there were no footsteps so we were passing into unchartered territory. I am no chicken, but I was a little worried about doing this. It turned out to be great…a little wild a few times when the snow got really deep, but I never felt unsafe. We even found two walking sticks that we used to judge how deep the snow was. We walked all thru the upper falls and ran into 2 people from Germany going the opposite direction. This was great because we could follow their footsteps out. So having done the upper falls it was time to hike the 3 miles back to the car. I think we hiked for about 5 hours in total so we were pretty exhausted but overjoyed at our amazing day. We hadn’t eaten lunch so we found the market in Mukinje and got some bread and meat to snack on while we watched some “classic” American TV back at Knezevic (Full House and Step by Step – possibly two of the cheesiest shows from the 90’s).

Dinner that night was at Hotel Jezero where we had the mushroom risotto and trout Plitvice style which was excellent. Then it was back upstairs to enjoy another hot chocolate.

You cannot, I repeat CANNOT, go to Croatia without seeing Plitvice Lakes. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. Next, the adventure continues in Sarajevo….

Sessa, Plitvice sounds amazing. We had totally planned on visiting, on our way up to Zagreb (crazy but true...we thought a few hours would be better than nothing) but the one day of our entire trip that it rained was the day we had planned on visiting. It was cold and foggy and pouring outside. DH and I so wanted to visit, and your words makes me wish we would have sucked it up and did it anyhow. Oh well...I'll just have to return!

Loving your report and your details!!

Tracy

Tracy - You will def. have to return. We were expecting rain and fog but got sun and snow instead! I do think you could just spend a few hours there as the hiking is very easy and it doesn't take long to get to some great views, especially at the lower falls which were more scenic in our opinion.

Loved your Plitvice description - it truly is paradise. One of the most stunning places on this planet in my opinion.

We were there on our only rainy day on our last trip (had other arrangements we could not change) so we did it anyway. It poured and poured the entire time but fortunately you can get some shelter in the trees. Portions of the trails were very muddy and slick but it was still worth it. Absolutely stupendous. I agree that you cannot go to Croatia without seeing Plitvice Lakes.

Glad that you had a great stay at Knezevic - we had to contend with a very loud and boisterous stag party which made it impossible to sleep the entire night. If it had not been for the awful noise we would have likely enjoyed it.

Anticipating your next installation!

Darn it! I guess we should have stuck it out and visited. I guess we were more concerned about our safety, as we brought sneakers but with the heavy rain didn't think they would be good enough as we weren't sure exactly what the terrain was like.

We will go back to Croatia, as its our favorite country in Europe, and Plitvice will be at the top of the list on that visit.

Tracy

travel2live2 - As were were driving to Knezevic, I had remembered thinking that someone on Fodor's hadn't really enjoyed there stay there due to noise, and now I remember that was you. I guess if you go in the middle of a snowstorm chances are you will be the only people staying there - ha ha.

I stupidly had sneakers for the hike, too, since they were worn out and I figured I could come back with a lighter load. It was very slippery in parts so was wishing I had brought my hiking shoes.

We had been trying to decide if it was "worth it" to spend one night at Plitvice Lakes between Hvar and Rovinj. We decided to add it to our trip and now, after reading the comments here, I am so happy we did!

Thanks for all the detail in your report. It is really valuable for those of us planning a trip.

Thanks for posting your trip report! A few years ago I was attending a slideshow presentation on Eastern Europe and the pictures of Plitvice Lakes were so amazing that Croatia was instantly my next "dream" destination. I enjoyed reading your description of it. Now, we are going to Croatia on our honeymoon for two weeks in September and reading your report gets me even more excited about our trip!

Bookmarking for our trip in 6 weeks Thanks for a great report.

Mostar & Medjugorje

Because we were short on time for this trip, Mostar and Medjugorje had to be quick stops on our drive back to Dubrovnik. Mostar was a 2 hour drive from Sarajevo, and the road was much better than the one going to Sarajevo. It was also a very scenic drive…with only one minor incident. We were exiting a short tunnel and were surprised to see a policeman sitting at the end waving us over to the side of the road. My first thought was “Uh oh, here we go” because we had heard a few horror stories about being pulled over by the police in Bosnia. I quickly told my husband everything I had read on Fodors about handling these types of situations. We rolled down the window, and the policeman addressed us is Bosnian. Of course we had no idea what he was saying so we asked “English??” and got a response of “No” and then he just pointed to the 40 km/h speed limit sign outside the tunnel as my husband tries to explain to him that we didn’t know. Oh great, we are screwed. He then said “passport” so we handed him my husband’s passport, driver’s license, and the green card for the rental car. He took it all back to his car and was having a discussion with his colleague. Meanwhile I’m asking my husband “How fast were you going?” And his response was “I don’t even think our car goes that slow.” Ha ha, he is probably right. The policeman returns, hands us our documents, and motions for us to move on. We both breathed a big sigh of relief and got the heck out of dodge before he changed his mind! I will say that it is very hard to follow the speed limits at all times, especially in Bosnia, because they change so often and unexpectedly…so be careful!

We got to Mostar and followed Rick Steves’ directions for where to park near the Old Town. It was a short walk to the old bridge and then we walked around the little town for a short while and found a place to have a late lunch. This was another tradition Bosnian place, I think called Saradvan or something like that. We ordered a meal similar to the one we had in Sarajevo and were very pleased. Satisfied with our meal and Mostar, it was time to move on to Medjugorje. I think, had we not spent time in Sarajevo, that we would have liked to spend more time in Mostar. But, having gotten a great sense of the war and history of Bosnia already, we were glad we only spent a couple of hours in Mostar.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Medjugorje from Mostar. For those not familiar with Medjugorje, it is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared to 6 teenagers there in 1981 and it is said these 6 people still have visions today. As Catholics, we were both very interested in this destination and it also happened to be Good Friday so we knew it would be a once in a lifetime experience for us. We pulled into the little one road town and found our way very easily to St. James’ church. It was packed with tour buses and people all there for Good Friday services. The church is only open to parishioners and there was a mass going on so we just peeked into the lobby and then strolled around the grounds. Around the back of the church is the famous status of Christ, and they were doing the stations of the cross (Good Friday devotion for those who aren’t familiar). The status was constructed as a memoriam of the apparitions and is famous because the right knee is always wet. Now, if this is a miracle or just rigged we’ll never know, but it was pretty neat to touch this spot and to see all of the other pilgrims there wetting handkerchiefs and such as keepsakes. You can hike to the top of apparition hill, but we needed to hit the road so we picked up a few rosaries for our parents and set off for Dubrovnik.

The route we were supposed to take was closed for construction, and of course we didn’t find this out until we were about 20 minutes into the drive. So we had to back track and go back out to the main road the way we came in. Somehow we still managed to get back to Dubrovnik from here in 2 hours. It was approaching 8pm, and that’s when we were told the rental office closed. We really wanted to get rid of the car this evening so that we could avoid parking again and just be relieved of the burden (since we had some really stressful moments in ol’ blue). We called, and he said he would wait in the event we were later than 8. Luckily, we got there at 7:45pm, and his survey of the car came up clean – whew! Another big sigh of relief.

coatia?

we travelled in may of 2007 from zagreb to athens: first overland and from split to athens via montenegro, albania by boat. we did not find the roads bad in that area at all. the sights, incl. the lakes, waterfalls, islands, small towns, bay of kotor, etc .. were beautiful! the people were very friendly. albania/butrint were worth the visit! IF you get that far, the corinth-canal is an interesting travel experience, I had only been 'on top' before. we would right away do the same trip again and can only recommend: see this beautiful area and enjoy!

Back in Dubrovnik
We waited for a cab at the ferry terminal to take us back to the Old Town (it took 15-20 minutes for one to actually come by and we were waiting at the taxi stand). We were excited to return to Villa Ragusa as it had started to feel like home after spending the 1st 3 nights there. Pero was even so kind as to let us keep the key since he had not other people booked in that room during the week. We got back to the sobe and called Pero to let him know we were back and then set out for dinner at Poliskar where we dined on mussels and grilled squid. We also had a bottle of wine to celebrate being rid of the rental car. We were so exhausted that we couldn’t finish the wine, but thanks to a thread I had read here on the board, we asked to take it with us to drink the next evening.

We woke up on our last day in Croatia to find it raining. We found it funny (and lucky!) that the only day we really needed our rain jackets was the very last day…and how appropriate it was that we were back in Dubrovnik where my husband had left his jacket at the start of the trip. This was okay because we had just planned to laze around anyway. First stop was Niko to get some more yummy chocolate croissants. Then we went to the tourist office outside the Pile Gate to ask about getting a taxi the next morning. We had the 6:25am Croatia Airlines flight and weren’t sure how easy it would be to get a cab that early in the morning. We were assured it shouldn’t be a problem since the partygoers don’t start leaving the Old Town until 6am. Still, since we didn’t want to risk being late for our flights we asked a taxi driver at the taxi stand if he would meet us at 4:30am the next day outside the Buza Gate. We just had to keep our fingers crossed that he would!

We then just spent some time checking the internet at the tourist office and walked up and down the Stradun looking for a souvenir. We always like to buy something special to commemorate our trips. For example, on our honeymoon in Italy we had a pendant light made out of Murano glass that now hangs above your dining table. We didn’t have anything in mind for this trip so we walked aimlessly around looking for the perfect piece. We found a lovely statue of a woman with flowers and a hat that was handmade in Zagreb. I’m not describing it well, but it is really cool. We had hoped to hit up Buza Bar one last time, but they were closed due to the weather so we hung out at Gradskavana near the Old Port for a few hours reading, people watching, and drinking wine and (of course) hot chocolate. For our last dinner, we dined at Lokanda Peskarija. Arrive early at this place because it was hopping even in the off-season. We had tried to come here the previous night, but they were full. We had the mussels and the seafood risotto (which was red not black thankfully!). It was so good – we ate every little morsel and every last drop of wine as we talked about our highlights from the trip. The next morning our cab driver was outside Buza Gate promptly at 4:30am (there were a lot of partygoers just heading home at that time), and he whisked us off to the airport in no time.

This was truly a fantastic trip. We got to see amazing scenery, experience new cultures, and learn a ton of history. In retrospect, I think our itinerary worked great…for us. Not everyone likes to move as fast as we do, but we really never felt rushed until we got to Medjugorje. Plitvice Lakes was the highlight for both of us, but I do not regret visiting any of the places that we did. I would go back to Croatia in a heartbeat – if only airfares were cheaper! I hope this report was as enjoyable for you all to read as it was for me to write. I hope to post back soon with pictures. We took almost 400 so I will definitely have to narrow that down!

Great trip report Sessa. It brought back such great memories of my own trip there! Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

A really enjoyable trip report, thank you sessa. It brought back many memories, all of them good!

The only thing is - unless I'm being daft, I can't find the Sarajevo part. Your report seems to go from Plitvice to Mostar. And having travelled to almost all the other places you did, it's Sarajevo I'm really interested in for future trip planning!

Thisis a most interesting trip report. I've read about the Plitvice Lakes several times, but you make it seem like it's the very next place to go. It's definitely on the list now., many thanks for all the info. Please keep it up.

Thanks, but maybe I am missing it, but I don't see your report on Sarajevo. I visited in August 2006, also staying at Guesthouse Halvat, and I'm curious to read your observations.

Michael

sessa, I loved following your trip report. It sounds fantastic and I don't think it sounds too rushed. We too tend to travel a little faster and while we didn't go to Sarajevo we did go up into Slovenia and spent time in Zagreb and Verazdin on our short 7 night trip. Off-season made it easier to travel like this because there weren't too many crowds so you could get a feel for a town very quickly.

Oh, to be back in Croatia.... But you are absolutely right; until the airfare goes down I'll have to live variously through trip reports like this!

Thanks for posting...looking forward to seeing the pics!
Tracy

Oh no, I guess my Sarejevo portion never posted! Oops! Thanks for pointing that out b/c I never would have noticed. I guess I am still jet-lagged. Here it is....


Sarajevo

Let me preface this section by saying that the drive from Plitvice to Sarajevo is definitely not for everyone and it certainly wasn’t built for anyone (just kidding). We left Plitvice around 9:30am. We had intended on leaving earlier because we knew it was a long drive, but we were so tired from the day before. It didn’t take long to get to the Bosnian border (border crossing was easy). We had wanted to fill up in Croatia, but we didn’t see a gas station along the way so we wanted to find one quickly so we wouldn’t have to stop again. It’s not that we were scared to stop, more like we were intimidated. I hadn’t read anything about anyone taking this route so we really didn’t know what to expect. We found a gas station, and no one spoke English so we gave him 20 Euro and that filled us up. It was a very slow two lane road thru a series of small towns. At one point we got totally turned around driving thru this very confusing and congested little town. We stopped at another gas station for a map. Again, no one spoke English, but the kind gentleman was able to show my husband that somehow (and I am still wondering how we managed this) we were on the right road. The map was in English, too, which was a bonus.

The scenery along the way was very mountainous and pretty, but the towns we drove thru were very sad and poor. Evidence of the war was everywhere. The signage was good except when we drove thru the Republika Srpska section where the cyrillic alphabet is used. Here, we figured out that “Sarajevo” was “CapajeBo” (which had my husband laughing because I started pronouncing it “Capayebo” how it looked).

We finally got to a major highway just outside of Sarajevo, and, at this point, it had started snowing again. I did not have very good directions to our guest house since they kept referring me to the map on their website which was hardly readable. But we figured out that there is only one main road thru the city so we took that and started heading towards the Old Town. Along the way, we passed the bombed out Hotel Bristol, as well as the Holiday Inn that housed war correspondents from around the world during the recent war. It was around 3:30, and there was SO much traffic and the weather was bad so we decided to call the guest house and ask for directions. The girl we spoke to was very nice, but for some reason we couldn’t find our way. She told us to look for the burned City Hall, turn there, and so on. Part of the problem is that none of the streets are labeled and the place was a ZOO. Well, the City Hall is not labeled and doesn’t look burned at 1st glance so we missed that turn and turned around and called again. After another phone call we were frustrated and pulled over to get our bearings. Well, we accidentally pulled over into a main bus stop, and this huge bus was trying to get around us as we were sitting there. He didn’t stop to let us move and about took off our rear. Luckily my husband was able to move quickly and pulled up a few inches or I swear we would have been filing that police report for damage for sure! We called again and followed the directions and found ourselves back out by the Holiday Inn! By this time, we are both freaking out, saying we hate Sarajevo, and on top of this my bladder is beyond full and I am about to explode. The poor girl at the guest house is frustrated herself and tells us that she will send her colleague to meet us at the Holiday Inn. I run inside, find a bathroom, use the ATM, and by the time I am back outside the guy is already there! Turns out that when we almost got hit by the bus we were one street away…oops! Bless those people for being patient with us.

We arrive at Guest House Halvat, and the girl who gave us directions (didn’t catch her name) was so sweet and welcoming. I thanked her over and over for her patience. She showed us to our room which was #25 on top. It was huge by European standards, and the bathroom was so spacious. I loved the towel heater. We both sprawled out of the bed thankful that we made it in one piece. Our first impression of Sarajevo was a poor one, but that would soon change dramatically.

We finished the bottle of wine that we had left over from Plitvice (wine makes everything better!) and decided it was time to eat. We were eager to try some local cuisine, and the girl recommended Inat Kuca (Spite House) which was a few blocks away and has an interesting story that we would learn the following day. We had bey soup and sahan which is a meat sampler and then a bottle of wine that the waiter suggested (it was the cheapest on the menu but he said it was the best). This turned out to be our favorite meal of the trip.

We had been scheduled to do a tour of the city the day we arrived, but we had to cancel it because it was so late by the time we got there. We went back and forth about whether to do the tour or just say heck with it and move on to the rest of our trip. Sarajevo was added to the itinerary because I really wanted to see it and experience the culture and history, so my husband agreed to do a tour 1st thing the next day, and boy was he glad he did.

Once again we woke up to the sun shining. From our windows we could see out over the rooftops and to the hillsides which we covered in snow, and we later learned these were the front lines of the Serbs in the war. Valida (who I had communicated with prior to the trip) was downstairs getting breakfast ready (they serve from 7-11am). Breakfast was fabulous….breads, fresh baked cheese muffins, fruit, and yogurt. As we started chowing down on these items which was more than enough, Valida came over and asked if we wanted eggs. Wow, what service! While we were finishing our tour guide arrived, and we set off promptly at 8am. His name was Fikret Kahrovic fikret_kahrovic@yahoo.com or fikret6@hotmail.com.

Fikret was born and raised in Sarajevo and is an official mountain guide and tour guide for Sarajevo. I didn’t know this until after our trip, but he has been interviewed by several notable publications such as the NY Times and the Seattle Times. I can see why. He was phenomenal. Our tour started with a stop for coffee where Fikret told us about the ancient history of Sarajevo, how it was first settled, how the many cultural influences came to be, etc. He said the purpose of this coffee chat was so that we would understand what we would be seeing later on. We then set off on the most interesting tour I have ever been on. I am not one for tours, but to understand a city as rich in history and as complex as Sarajevo a tour is a must. I should say that a tour with Fikret is a must! We spent 4 hours with him, but I was wishing we could have spent the whole day. Everything we saw was so important and interesting. I was probably most interested in learning about the recent war, but I really liked how he covered the entire city’s history because there is so much more to it than what happened in the 90’s.

That said, there is still quite a bit of war damage remaining. One of the most powerful stops on our trip was to a former park turned cemetery. Hundreds of defenders of Sarajevo are buried there. He described to us the different headstones in Bosnia (I think there are 6), and these new ones were created during the war. It was sad to see the dates on the headstones as most were not more than 25 years old.

At the end of the tour we again sat down for coffee where Fikret debriefed us and answered the rest of our questions. He told us next time we will spend the entire day with him, and we said absolutely! We arrived back at Halvat to gather our stuff, and we asked him how much for the tour. Valida had quoted us 30 Euro (60 KM), but she said to confirm with Fikret. We asked him, and he said whatever Valida quoted us. We asked her what a suggested tip amount would be, and she said a tip was not necessary. This seemed not nearly enough money for the time he spent with us and the knowledge he bestowed upon us about his city so we happily doubled it.

Finding our way out of the city was much easier. It really was not that complicated when there is no traffic or bad weather. Now we were headed back to Dubrovnik with stops in Mostar and Medjugorje…

Another big thanks for a lovely report. I think I missed the Sarajevo part too and as Julia mentioned, this is on my list also. It is interesting that you went through the Buza Gate to get to your apt, which would eliminate having to climb all those stairs, right? I don't think too many people know about this gate. Also, where is Niko located? I can hear one of those chocolate croissants calling my name.

Barb-
Hopefully you saw the Sarajevo part that I re-posted since it didn't worth the first time.

I am pretty sure Niko was 3 blocks south of the Stradun on Puca. So from th Old Port you would walk towards the Pile Gate on this street, and the Pucic Palace hotel would be on your left as you walk down Puca. Hope that makes sense.

Have a great trip, and have a chocolate croissant for me! They were closed the last time we went by after dinner the night before we left

Michael - We loved Guest House Halvat. Your info on Sarajevo prompted us to pursue it on our itinerary so thanks for that.

Okay, here is a link to view some of our pictures. I am trying out the tiny url so hopefully it works.

http://tinyurl.com/3yckcf

Link works -- glad you enjoyed Sarajevo and the Halvat guesthouse.

Oh, now that I see it, I ate at Inat Kuca, too -- it had a favorable review in the Lonely Planet. But, when I visited, it was sunny, and we ate outside overlooking the river.

Sessa...

Your pictures are fabulous! Plitvice looks magical in the snow! Thanks for sharing!

Sessa, your pictures are gorgeous. And Plitvice National Park looks like a winter wonderland...spectacular! After seeing your pics of Plitvice, Mostar and Sarajevo I am seriously contemplating returning next year...that is, if I can find "reasonable" airfare!

Thanks so much for sharing!
Tracy

Your pictures are just wonderful, gave me goosebumps actually. You look like a very lovely couple.

Awww, thanks Barb! I really hope you can find Niko. I've been having chocolate withdrawals since we returned.

I forgot to answer your earlier question about the stairs. Yes, the Buza Gate eliminated the need to walk up so many stairs to get to our sobe. And it was especially convenient when we had the cab meet us there to go to the airport.

Tracy - I am beginning to forget what "reasonable" is these days. We are hoping to go to Germany/Austria for Christmas this year, but flights are hovering at $1000. Granted it's the holidays but still... We will probably switch gears in 2009 and head to South America.

I discovered this gate when a friend asked me to meet him there because his car was parked in that lot right by the gate. Quite a hike up there if your apt. is on the other side of the Stadun. I am sure I can find Niko, thanks, can't wait!! As I said on another thread, I can almost taste the calamari and feel the sun on my face. I hope the Buza Bar is well stocked!

sessa, I was just researching prices to Croatia and we too may have to put a hold on it. Between the airfare and the exchange rate...yikes! We are headed back to Germany and Austria in a few weeks so that will give me a little Europe fix, although those tickets were FF tickets, and then we are off to Costa Rica in August...our first trip to latin America. We too have considering South America (Peru or Ecuador) or SE Asia for next year. Saddens me, but it is what it is.

Happy planning!
Tracy

Great trip report and loved the pictures, it's definitely making me rethink Italy next year, plus we'd probably go around the same time to avoid the crowds, so it's nice to hear the weather wasn't too bad (though I know it may differ from year to year).

Thank you for taking the time to write this!

Tracy - You are going to start thinking we are "stalking" you...after our potential Christmas trip to Germany/Austria, we are looking into Costa Rica for next Spring and Peru for next Summer. I'm sure we'll be "seeing" each other on the Latin America board!

owlwoman - We really lucked out with the weather as we kept hearing how rainy/windy it was going to be in March. It was so nice in the southerns areas - I would take that any day over the summer heat. And even though it snowed in Plitvice and Sarejvo, it wasn't unbearably cold.

Sessa:

What a great travelogue and your pix are incredible. What kind of camera did you use?

We're headed there for a month starting May 13 but we're picking up a car in Munich and driving to Salzburg and Lake Bled first and then to Ljubljana and Zagreb before hitting Croatia. We won't get to Plitvice until May 26 and I'm so excited already. Half the fun is in the planning.

Great job. Thanks for sharing.

LOL sessa! I'll be posting a trip report, I'm sure, when we get back from Germany. We leave three weeks from today...woohoo!

I am so excited to visit Costa Rica. We found a great flight sale on AA and purchased our flight (from Raleigh) for about $230 per person. Sure beats $1000! We will be concentrating our trip on the Arenal region. Peru is very high on my list of "must sees" so I'm hoping that works out.

Tracy

tenderfoot - Your trip sounds awesome!! We were hoping we could tack Lake Bled onto our Munich/Salzburg Christmas itinerary, but I don't think we will have the time.

As far as our camera, we have a Fuji FinePix S700. It has 7.1 mp, 10x zoom, and the best part - it's under $200. We bought it before we went to Hawaii last summer, and it takes amazing pictures. We have had several friends go out and buy it after seeing our pics. I should be getting commission from Fuji - ha ha. Of course the amazing scenery helps, too!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for your trip report!

We leave April 30th for our 2 week adventure to Croatia, Montenegro and Mostar!

So, I've been copying and pasting your entire trip report into a word doc!

We have also gotten the question...

Is it safe there???

When we return I will post our report...hopefully it will be as fun and informative as yours to read!!!!

Thanks again for the time and energy you put into this, to share with all of us!

Karen

ps...on our personal website, we embedded a few videos of Croatia, Montenegro and Mostar that we found for our family and friends to view, so they would understand why we chose this itinerary..maybe you would like to view them too......

when.do.we.leave.googlepages.com

just go into our next adventure

I loved your trip report - thank you for posting. Croatia is definitely on my must see soon list.

Sessa - Great pics - wonderful report. Went to Croatia for 5 years - didn't go '07 and going to the Greek islands for '08 - but maybe 09 - Plitvice covered in snow looks spectacular - and Buza bar, a little slice of true heaven - thanks.

Just had a chance to check out your pictures...

WOW!

We can't wait until we begin our trip on April 30th!

Thanks again for taking the time to share, it is most appreciated!

sessa, what a wonderful and thorough trip report - thanks so much. And Plitvice is definitely on my list for our next visit!

Would you stay in the Stari Grad again? I know there have been threads about staying there vs. outside of the walls.

And Karen, your website is great - it inspired me to do something similar!

Regarding your question about safety, we feel that the Balkans (at least where we've traveled) are very safe, relatively speaking. We walk at night and we've never felt nervous or at risk. I do think the crime rate is lower there than in many other countries. I'd be interested in others' thoughts on safety.

Karen - What a cool website! Thanks for sharing.

Ellen - I would definitely stay in the Stari Grad in Dubrovnik again. I had read several opinions that staying outside the walls was better for the view. It was nice to be near the action, and the view from our room was great. From the Stradun, though, it was several steps up to our sobe...but we considered it good exercise after all that we ate and drank!

I also wanted to add that we felt perfectly safe throughout our entire trip. There was only one instance in Sarajevo where we were uncomfortable. It was in the early evening, and we were approached by a woman at an ATM asking for money. She kept getting closer and closer so we bolted. I am sure she was harmless and we felt very sad for her, but I didn't like her invading our personal space like that.

Sessa,

Thanks for your trip report. I brought back many happy memories from my trip last year since we went to similar places.

I also stayed at Villa DePolo and found Rezi to be a delight---it was fun to hear about her from you!

Kathy

sessa, it just hit me; we were in Medjugorje 48 hours before you were - on the 19th! It was a beautiful day and there weren't too many people, so it was easy to walk around and see the church.

We made the drive from Dubrovnik to Mostar, then took a detour on the way back to Medjugorje and got back to Dubrovnik before dark. Did you notice all the roadside stands with oranges?

Next time I want to go all the way to Sarejevo. . .

sessa, it just hit me; we were in Medjugorje 48 hours before you were - on the 19th! It was a beautiful day and there weren't too many people, so it was easy to walk around and see the church.

We made the drive from Dubrovnik to Mostar, then took a detour to Medjugorje on the way back and got back to Dubrovnik before dark. Did you notice all the roadside stands with oranges?

Next time I want to go all the way to Sarejevo. . .

Sorry about the double posting; I tried to edit it and it didn't work.

sessa, I just had a chance to look at your pictures; they're wonderful - thank you!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get to Sarejevo, but the thing that hit us about Mostar were the bombed out buildings still standing. I wasn't prepared for it and it really hit me. The explanation we were given was that there isn't enough money to tear them down. Children were skipping off to school past them; they probably don't even notice them anymore, but what a sad reminder.

I understand that the old bridge was destroyed in the war and completely rebuilt.

We love the Balkans and plan to spend more time there.

ellen - We saw a lot of that in Sarajevo, too. Destroyed houses among rebuilt or untouched ones. We even asked our (fabulous) tour guide why they weren't just torn down. He said there were several reasons - either owners didn't want to pay for it, surviving family members didn't want to claim it b/c they didn't want to pay for it, or the entire family was killed. You're right, it is a very sad reminder, especially since the war is not so recent anymore.

I would love to spend more time in Sarajevo. I hope you are able to visit there on your next trip!

isailtheseas:

We are going to Croatia on April 28th! Will you be in Dubrovnik? That is the first part of our trip. We will stay for six days. While there, we'll take a day trip to Montenegro. Then we drive to Split, then Plitvice Lakes, then Opatija, and finally Zagreb. I wonder if we'll be in any of the same cities at the same time?

We can't wait for our trip either!

Karen

Man O Man - I'm ready to hop a flight to Croatia ASAP. Thanks for this wonderful report and fabulous photos.

sessa, this is a most enjoyable read. Thanks for posting. I'm keeping it for a possible future trip. Great pictures also!

Sessa, your report is only surpassed (although not really) by your awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing. Our whistle is so "wet"; we have another trip meeting with our friends on Saturday for the great Draeger/Reuchlen adventure in September. I promise a full report when we return. Shirley (And we will take any tips anyone can offer up.)

Karen...

I've been out of town so just saw your post....

we will be in DBV with you..sort of

we arrive 5/2

send me an email

which you can find on our travel website...
http://when.do.we.leave.googlepages.com/

check out the area Our Next Adventure!

I just wanted to say thanks for all of your kind comments about our website...

Sorry for the delay in my response to let you know that I appreciated them..but my mom and I took off for a girls getaway cruise and we just got back!

I was so excited to read Karen's comments that I forgot that I had posted the link above!

Sessa...I just re-read all of your information and I am just sooooooo excited about our trip!

I so appreciate that you took the time to share all of this with us...

Karen...

I've been out of town so just saw your post....

we will be in DBV with you..sort of

we arrive 5/2

send me an email

which you can find on our travel website...
http://when.do.we.leave.googlepages.com/

i really should stop multi tasking

sorry everyone

hello, I have a couple questions, so hopefully sessa or someone will read this post.

we are leaving for croatia august 10th, 2008, we are using economycarrental.com

we are also staying at villa ragusa

my questions are where do you meet up with the economycarrental people, is there signs? Do they escort you to the car lot?

Where is villa ragusa located? we are arriving by ferry and I would like some directions on how to get there from the port. thank you patricia

pjsparlor...

I can't help with the location of the rental car company because we had Pero (owner of Villa Ragusa) pick us up at the port.

Villa Ragusa is inside the walls of Dubrovnik and there is no parking at the sobe. You may want to contact the sobe owner and ask him to recommend where you should park your car.

pjsparlor536, when we used economycarrentals they brought the car to us in Dubrovnik. It was nice to be able to sit in the car and sign all the paperwork. We later dropped the car off at the airport in Zagreb.

Tracy

thank you, we will not have a car in dubrovnik so I have the map from Pero of villa ragusa but it is too primitive to know where the sobe is located. If you could give me some landmarks that would help us walk to the sobe from the port.

pjsparlor...

Will you be arriving at the Old Port or the fery port (which looked new and larger)? If it's the Old Port you are within walking distance to Villa Ragusa. If it's the ferry port you will need a taxi or local bus (can't remember the exact bus number.)

If you arrive at the Old Port, walk to the Placa (Stradun) (the main street through the old town). Across from St. Blaise Church there is a street named Zlatarska this is the street Villa Ragusa is on, however there are alot of stairs to walk up.

There is another way to access the sobe, but you would need to walk around the outside of the walls and enter through the North City entrance. There are fewer stairs this way and you would be walking down, instead of up.

I was there 2 years ago and arranged for Pero to pick us up and take us back to the sobe. You may want to ask him if he still offers this pick up service.

thank you, this forum is awesome!

pjsparlor - We also had Pero pick us up from the airport. The sobe is located very near the Buza Gate. If my memory serves me correctly, you walk thru the gate, turn left and it's the second alley on your right a set of stairs or two down. See how that compares to the map. Maybe you can ask Pero to meet you at the Buza Gate.

We took a cab from the Old Town to the Economy Rental Cars office. We thought about having them drop it off, but it was more expensive and confusing. The rental car office is basically across the street from the ferry port. IT was difficult at first to find our way out of town once we got the rental car. Make sure and ask for specific directions because it is a congested area and can be very stressful with all of the aggressive drivers.

If you plan to park near the Old Town, there is a parking lot right outside the Buza Gate. You will want to make sure you are doing the parking meter correctly. It is very confusing, and there was no one around to help us...thus, we got a parking ticket.

Hope this is helpful, and hope you have a wonderful trip!

sessa,

I too enjoyed reading the narrative of your trip. I will be flying to Zagreb from Crete next September and had a question about renting a car and driving it in and out of Bosnia and Montenegro. I also found the economy rental to be the most reasonable, but am confused about the border pass. They are charging 172 euro extra for the pass to drive the car to those countries. None of the other rental companies mentioned anything about the border pass. Can you clarify the border procedure? (even with the extra border card fee the total rental is still less than any other rental companies)

Nice report!Thanks.

BM for Fall trip.

Fishstrom, try these. auto-europe, uni-rent, kemwel and national

sessa: Thank you for your wonderful trip report, it was lovely. You seem to have been able to enjoy the essence of Southern Croatia. There is so much more to enjoy, so plan well for your next adventure.
Back in 1971 when I first started coming to the former "Yugoslavia" the comments and looks were too funny. Now can you imagine the looks and comments I received when I announced last year that I was moving to Dubrovnik. I found it amazing how many, well educated and well traveled people asked me if I wasn't afraid of the war!
September is still, very much, our high season here. The mega cruisers are still arriving on a daily basis and the Europeans are still here also. Most of the shops do close down on 01 November and we consider that the end of "the season."
By the way, sessa, that small cafe by the pier in Orebic, my cousin is the waitress. She uses one of our friends facilities just across the road. My mother was born in Orebic and it is a wonderful place to visit and stay during summer. You can take the small ferry across to Korcula and enjoy the small town easily in one afternoon. Next time you're in Orebic, walk up to the Gospa Angela it's the small church on the cliffside overlooking the Adriatic. Both my parents are now back in Orebic, father in the Adriatic and mother is above Gosa Angela looking down on her beloved village.
Please do come back and spend more time in Dubrovnik. There is an essence here which is part of my soul. Walking up to the top of Srd mountain for the most amazing view of our town is a must. That is, by the way, exactly where the Amazing Race finished their day in Dubrovnik.
Another do not miss spot is walking up to the top of Ft. Lovrijenac, just outside the Pile gate entrance.
sessa, do let me know if you plan to return here again. If so I invite you to contact me directly.

Dobrodosli u Dubrovnik

Carol...an American living in Dubrovnik

Hi Sessa,
Thanks for your report! It is very helpful as I am planning a trip to Croatia and Slovenia April 21 - May 8, 2009 and your information is helpful.
QUESTION:
Do you think 3 nights in Dubrovnik with a day trip to Montenegro is enough time?
We have allotted 3 nights also and with a day trip to Montenegro I was wondering is we are "shorting" ourselves?
I could add another day to DRV is we cut out the 1 night on Kortula.
As of now we have planned 1 night Korcula (Dupopo)
and 2 nights Hvar.

The beginning of out trip is this:

3 nights Dubrovnik
1 night Mostar (also Medjugorie)
1 night Korcula
2 nights Hvar
1 night Split
1 night Plitzvice
3 nights Rovinj etc... then on to Slovenia...

Opinions from anyone else are also welcome. Are Kortula and Hvar enough similar that I do not need to include both?
Or should I have 3 nights on Hvar and skip Kortula??

Nannibray

Nannibray:

As I look at your itinerary I can't help but believe you're trying to see way too much in a very short amount of time. Have you factored in your driving time or do you plan to take the ferry from Dubrovnik to Korcula?

Some roads here aren't major highways. And one never knows if the wait to get into Montenegro is 5 mintues to hours.

Hvar and Korcula are very different and both are lovely places to visit. Hvar is the lavendar island and the ultra rich European private yachts party town. Meantime Korcula is and island, which is one of the places to claim the birthplace of Marco Polo. Do you want to have 3 nights on Hvar?
In my hubble opinion, 3 nights in DBV is hardly enough to touch the surface, but then I am very much a local by now.

Dobrodosli u Dubrovnik

Croatiatravellady (or anyone else with an opinion)

I am happy to hear from you!!

I agree - I need 4 nights for Dubrovnik. I can add 1 night from Bled (had 3 nights planned here)

So I still have 3 nights for islands and I would like your OPINION.

Here goes:

4 nights Dubrovnik- (a day trip via car or tour to Montenegro)

1 night Mostar (see Ston enroute)

The next day visit Medjugorie and drive to Korcula or Hvar.
I had planned on Korcula for 1 night thinking we could get to Hvar the next day via the car
ferry, but have since learned that the car ferry from Korcula to Hvar won't work for me since
it only runs twice a week. Consequently, to get to Hvar I would have to return to the
mainland at Ploce etc. MUCH MORE TIME AND TROUBLE.

Is this plan still feasible (don't think it is) or should I just pick one island and stay 3 nights? If yes, which island do YOU PREFER?? Any alternate suggestions?

To continue the itinerary:

1 night Split

1 night Plitsvice

3 nights Rovinj

2 nights Bled

1 night Ljubjana

l night Zagreb airport (before flight home)

Thanks for your help!
Nannibray

I am still of the very strong opinion it is too much and I am believe you don't have enough time to enjoy any of your towns. Trying to drive from Dubrovnik north and visit all the major sights can't be done well in one trip.
Do not assume that you will be making wonderful time on the roads. Driving can be confusing and sometimes you are kept at the Bosnian border for no reason.
If you are planing to walk and enjoy the beauty of Plitvice then perhaps you may need another night there, just to regroup.
Rather than stay in Split, do look at Trogir which is just a short drive into Split. Trogir is small and very special and such a better alternative to Split.
Again I must advise you, as a retired travel consultant of 30 years experience, it's too much. This itinerary reminds me of the wonderful movie which only a few of the Fodorites will remember: "If it's Tuesday It Must Be Belguim."

Dobrodosli u Dubrovnik

fishtrom - I do recall Economy Car Rentals showing the charge for the green card to cross the border. I can't remember how much it was, though. Perhaps the other rental companies just aren't showing you an itemized quote. You will have to show this card along with your passports at each border crossing so you will need it regardless of the rental company you choose. We had a great experience with Economy Rental Cars so I would definitely go with them if they are the cheapest.